Smith was “always, always, always looking” for new airplanes, one friend said: “He would run out in front of the cabs to get them, you know, before they got run over. I remember one time we saw one in the air and he was just running everywhere trying to figure out where it was going to be. He was just, like, out of his mind, completely. He couldn’t believe that he’d seen one. Someone, I guess, shot it from an upstairs building.”

I once launched a light balsa wood plane from the rooftop of a building in Soho. The way it floated and circled down is etched into my memory. It’s a wonder it didn’t hit anybody and in retrospect this wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had. Nonetheless it really was something to see.

Like this:

On November 1, 2008, the New York Hall of Science in Queens, New York will be hosting a paper airplane contest. OH HELLS YES.

The following categories will be judged:

Distance flown (measured in a straight line from start point to finish point)

Duration aloft (measured from time released to time it lands on any surface)

Beauty (subjective measurement based on judges’ assessment of both the plane’s physical qualities and the beauty of the flight itself; this category does not depend on distance flown or duration aloft)

Spectacular Failure (subjective measurement based on the audience’s assessment of both the plane’s physical qualities and the most spectacular crashes)